


Dye, Dye My Darling

by agrajag



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 23:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8820460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrajag/pseuds/agrajag
Summary: "Sorry," Dex said, breathless. "I, uh, stopped to take a shower."
Derek could see the water soaking through the shoulders of Dex's flannel, proving this to be true, but his hair had then been stuffed under a beanie for some reason. While the temperature was starting to fall, it certainly wasn't cold enough to warrant a hat. Even if Dex had been worried about his wet hair making him feel colder.
"You know," Derek said as he leaned back on Chowder's bed. "It's bad to suffocate your hair like that after washing it."
"Yeah," Chowder said. "You can take your beanie off. I won't mind if the bed gets wet."
Dex suddenly looked more nervous then he had before their first game.
"Oh no, it's alright. I mean, it dries weird either way, right? I can't get it to stay flat no matter what I do. So better to keep it on."





	

**Author's Note:**

> This started after I had a dream where Dex had dyed his hair and turned into some random scribbles in my notebook when I was supposed to be pre-planning my novel for November. Now that I'm facing a ton of editing for said novel, I decided to edit this instead. I figured it's alright since I actually won Nano this year! Plus, I missed my boys this past month.

_Chill_. It had been Derek's, well, mantra of sorts for years. He couldn't let things get to him if he wanted to survive high school. Now, at Samwell, people weren't as big of dicks, but it still was better to be chill. Even about the little things. It definitely made him the least stressed out of the team.

No one was safe from midterms, however. While Ransom had locked himself in the attic, Holster was blasting the Hairspray soundtrack while going through flashcards, and Bitty was baking his fourth pie, Derek was starting to feel a little anxious himself. he was going to get through it, though. Of this he was certain.

Derek was quizzing Chowder for his English 101 class in exchange for Chowder reading over Derek's science paper. Chowder had complained at first that meant he still ended up with way more English work than his left sided brain could deal with, but Derek and his right sided brain had fought to turn in a paper instead of lab report the entire last week. He told Chowder he wasn't expecting him to correct any grammatical errors. Derek wanted him to make sure the content was correct. So they were at the Haus working in a companionable silence and waiting for Dex. He was supposed to join them after he got out of class, but he was running late. Derek was just about to text him when Chowder's bedroom door slammed open.

"Sorry," Dex said, breathless. "I, uh, stopped to take a shower."

Derek could see the water soaking through the shoulders of Dex's flannel, proving this to be true, but his hair had then been stuffed under a beanie for some reason. While the temperature was starting to fall, it certainly wasn't cold enough to warrant a hat. Even if Dex had been worried about his wet hair making him feel colder.

"You know," Derek said as he leaned back on Chowder's bed. "It's bad to suffocate your hair like that after washing it."

"Yeah," Chowder said. "You can take your beanie off. I won't mind if the bed gets wet."

Dex suddenly looked more nervous then he had before their first game.

"Oh no, it's alright. I mean, it dries weird either way, right? I can't get it to stay flat no matter what I do. So better to keep it on."

Derek knew something was off. Dex hadn't raised his voice or told Derek off for being wrong, though that might have been because C had agreed with him. Any other time, it would have been an instant fight if Derek pointed out that Dex was doing something incorrectly. Especially if it had to do with anything pertaining to his looks. Dex would immediately be up in arms and yelling about how they all couldn't look like Abercrombie models. Derek normally let it slide. Dex would come to terms with his insecurities on his own terms. But even when he was insecure about his looks, he would still fight Derek about it. Not brush it off. In fact, Derek was sure Dex didn't even own a beanie. He normally wore baseball caps.

Now, Derek could nicely ask what was up, but that just wasn't how he and Dex worked.

So, without a word, he stood up and cornered Dex before he had a chance to run. Derek pulled the beanie off and immediately froze.

Instead of bright red, all he could see was black.

Dex blushed, though with his hair now dyed black, his cheeks looked more pink than red. Derek felt like his heart was going to burst.

"Aw Dex," Chowder whined from the bed. "Why did you do that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Dex responded angrily.

Derek slowly back off and, not for the first time, felt guilty for making Dex mad. It had started happening more and more, he noticed.

"I'm tired of being made fun of," Dex continued. "I thought by college people would be more mature, but I was wrong. Apparently it's still hilarious to pick on the ginger."

"We were gonna see it eventually," Derek said once he had composed himself. "Why hide it?"

"I just wanted to do it at practice and have everyone see it at once so I only had to do this... once..." Dex trailed off like he had been speaking far faster then his brain could keep up with. He did that often when his anger was slowly subsiding into disappointment, and he'd get even more dejected when he realized he was repeating words or was making no sense.

"We're so sorry Dex," Chowder said, although he had done nothing. He honestly was the best friend. Neither of them deserved him.

Derek knew he should apologize as well, but it felt like that wouldn't be enough. Dex would still feel bad about his hair in the end.

"I know saying 'don't let it get to you' won't help." Dex glared at him. Derek could practically feel Chowder glaring behind him as well. "Trust me. I've been in your position, and I hated when people told me to not let it get to me. And if dying your hair makes you feel better, then that's great. I think you look good either way."

Derek realized too late that he had sounded far too sincere. While he was comfortable with complimenting his friends, and did so all the time with Chowder and the others, that just wasn't how he and Dex _worked_. Now Dex was babbling and Chowder was excusing himself, saying he needed to use the bathroom, before fleeing his own room and leaving Derek to face Dex alone.

"I don't need your pity," Dex said, once he had calmed down.

Though he looked far from calm.

"It's not pity. God, you're angry if I'm mean. You're angry if I'm nice. I can't win with you."

"Lying isn't nice." He sounded like a petulant child. Derek definitely did _not_ find it cute.

"It wasn't a lie! I... I meant it."

When Dex was trying to not let his anger get the best of him, which did happen sometimes, he would run his fingers through his hair. Probably why he could never get it to lay flat, but Derek wasn't about to point that out. He started doing it as he stood there silently, staring at Derek like he couldn't believe him. It brought all of Derek's attention back to Dex's hair. He looked so different. It made him appear even paler than he actually was. Almost like a China doll. As soon as Derek had that thought, he knew he would never say that in a million years to Dex's face. He had been honest when he said he thought Dex looked good either way, though. Sure, he loved Dex's red hair. It fit his fiery personality so well. He wouldn't say he preferred it, however. Dex's hair was just a small part of him. A small part of what made Derek fall for him.

Yeah. There was no denying it now. Why else would Derek have been trying to be kinder? Why he kept noticing all of Dex's ticks? His hat choices? When he was clearly uncomfortable?

Derek had been quiet, allowing Dex to work through his thoughts. When he finally spoke, he sounded so small.

"I know I'm not as good looking as everyone else on the team. I know I'm not really good looking at all, okay? Like, I've got muscles, but that's all I have going for me. I've accepted that, but I don't need, _you_..." he gestured to Derek's, well, everything. "You, of all people, to try and cheer me up by saying I look good."

"Dex, I know we fight a lot. I know that's on me as much as it's on you. And, yeah, at first I fought with you because we weren't getting along. But I think by now, you can say we're friends. And I just kept doing it because it's what we do. I'm sorry, now, that that means you can't believe me when I'm sincerely saying something that isn't an insult."

Dex was blushing again. "Okay. Well, uh, thanks... then. I mean, I believe you. Sorry that sounded sarcastic."

"No worries," Derek said with a shrug.

"It's going to take some getting used to, isn't it?"

"I don't think so. I already love it."

"Love it?" Dex asked. He looked at Derek and smiled. Derek was not at all jealous that Dex had figured it out that fast when it had taken him all this time to come to terms with it. "Well, I guess I will keep it then. I had thought I'd change it back before I had to go home. But I suppose I can deal with my mom freaking out if Derek Nurse _loves_ it."

Before Derek could reply, there was a crash from outside followed by some muffled cursing. Chowder slowly cracked the door open and peeked inside.

"I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I swear. But it sounds like you guys are cool now. You are, right? I can come back inside? I brought pie. Like, tons of it."

Dex laughed. "It's your room, C. You should have just told us you were back."

"True," Chowder said. "But I wanted you to work this out first. So, who wants blueberry and who wants apple? The blackberry is for me, so hands off."

"Wow, Bitty must be avoiding several projects if he baked all of this," Dex said around a bite of the blueberry pie he had swiftly stolen from Chowder.

"I think it's safe to say everyone's a little stressed out," Derek said. Dex smiled sheepishly as he unconsciously touched his hair.

They got back to work after that, and if he was sitting perhaps a little closer to Dex than usual, Chowder was nice enough to not say anything.

And later...

When they were all far too tired to keep working, but for some unknown reason were still studying...

And Derek started petting Dex's hair, that _had_ dried funny thanks to the beanie...

And instead of batting his hand away, Dex leaned into the touch while he continued to chew on his pen...

And Chowder still didn't say anything...

He was a saint.


End file.
